Eventide
by LabyrinthDweller
Summary: Just because you are Lord of the Thundercats does not mean you are not allowed to counsel with others about your struggles.


_Thundercats is perhaps my favorite 80's TV show. Ok scratch the perhaps, it _is _my favorite 80's show. I love it, I love the premise, the villains, the flawed characters, the interactions, the sometimes batshit craziness that accompanies it, the odd mesh of sci-fi and fantasy, but probably most of all I love Tygra._

_So no, I don't like the reboot. Because Tygra isn't Tygra. Also because Lion-O doesn't have the fatal flaw of being a boy in a man's body. Actually this piece illustrates my main beefs with the reboot pretty damn well. Wistful sighs._

* * *

**Eventide**

Tygra bit into the apple, licking the stray juice away from the corners of his lips before running his raspy tongue over his sharp teeth to catch any traces of the fruit. He had come to like apples very much; they were sweet but not overpoweringly so, firm and crisp but juicy. The Berbils had started to grow an extra apple orchard just for the Thundercats – they enjoyed the fruit but only as sauce or pie since they lacked the teeth to eat them uncooked.

Wiping his chin clean with the back of his arm, Tygra gazed across the landscape, sitting on the edge of the western balcony of the Cat's Lair. The young trees of the neighboring forest stood happily, their leafy branches swaying in the gentle breezes to cause a ripple of greens and yellows in the golden sunlight. The sky was washed with a sweet and passionate red as the sun dipped behind the far mountains. Even the harsh waters of the acid lake appeared to glitter and dance in colors of brilliant orange, a type of intense ballet that belied the lake's true nature. Tygra smiled, small and content. A barely audible purr settled in the back of his throat. Panthro had often times referred to Tygra as too much of a romantic, seeing poetry in things that shouldn't invoke such thoughts. The tiger had kept quiet; he did not need to defend himself nor was Panthro expecting him to. Tygra was the first to settle in and accept their new home, and he was the first to enjoy it sitting here on the edge of the balcony watching the fiery sky compliment the world below him.

"Ah, hello, Tygra,"

He turned back to see his Lord, Lion-O, standing in the doorway. By this time he had become accustomed to seeing the young Lord as a full-grown man, though it still was something of note every time he had turned to look at him. Lion-O was tall and bulky, though still not as tall as Tygra nor as muscled as Panthro. He was strong but clumsy and untrained, oftentimes straining himself when he could have easily avoided it. He would learn, Tygra asserted to the others, and Lion-O _had_ learned, quickly and fiercely. But there was still the spark of a young boy in his eyes, a spark of innocence and befuddlement that Tygra could see every time he looked at him. The fiery light of the evening washed over Lion-O's face, and Tygra could see that this day the young boy was standing in front of him, frustrated in thought and lost in confusion.

"I didn't know you were here, I'm sorry if I bothered you,"

"Not at all," Tygra raised an eyebrow, "You seem more lost in thought than I was."

"It's...nothing," Lion-O sighed quietly, still idling in the doorway as though he couldn't decide whether he should leave or stay.

Raising a finger, Tygra replied, smiling in reminiscence of his adolescent years, "Just because you are the Lord of the Thundercats, just because you possess the _body_ of the Lord of the Thundercats, does not mean you are not allowed to counsel with others about your struggles."

Lion-O looked indignant at Tygra while he took another bite of the apple, "I'm _not_ struggling! As Lord of the Thundercats I _cannot_ show weakness or...or...,"

His rant died down as Tygra wordlessly, knowingly smiled at him.

"What is it, Tygra? What am I doing wrong?"

"Absolutely nothing for a boy your age," Tygra examined the bites in the apple as Lion-O shifted on his feet uneasily.

"But...as a _man_ my age – physical age – what am I doing _wrong_?"

"You simply have the mind and heart of a twelve-year-old boy," Tygra replied calmly, the smile dropping.

"Th-That's not _fair_, Tygra!" Lion-O's shoulders heaved up and down, and tears beaded on the far corners of his eyes.

"No," Tygra said quietly, "It's not."

A breeze ruffled their fur as silence passed between the two.

"How do I fix it?" Lion-O asked, struggling to keep his voice from shaking.

"You can't."

"Then...then what do I do?"

Tygra took a bite from the apple, aware that the young Thundercat was watching his every move with prolonged agony.

"You live with it," he answered, "You learn from the world around you, from your colleagues and friends; you mimic what you deem to be good and just and shun what you see as wrong and unfair. You understand yourself then build upon what is already there to continue on to the next day." Tygra pointed towards the sun, now just a red orb nearly swallowed by the teeth of the mountains to the west. Lion-O crept forward to the railing, gazing out across the landscape.

"The sun is not the same every time you see it; sometimes it changes its position, sometimes it hides behind clouds, mountains, trees, or walls. Whether or not it was for the better it cannot be determined until night comes and we can rethink the day in full. Even then, only _recognizing_ what things you may have done wrong is not enough, Lion-O. Sometimes you have to realign yourself with the world, and these changes are rarely direct. Sometimes you have to wait for a similar situation to change the things you did wrong the previous time. Sometimes that situation never arrives again, and you have to live with the missed opportunities."

Lion-O was quiet, listening intently to everything Tygra was explaining. Then he slumped, resting his chin on his arms as he continued to look out to the far horizon.

"Tygra," he said after a while, "How do I be like you?"

Tygra laughed, tossing the half-eaten apple up and catching it in mid-air. "Why in the world would you want to be like me, Lion-O?"

"You, you're...the others are good at fighting and they're strong, and you are too but you—you think about things, and they're always _smart_ and good, like you know just what to do when something happens and you always know why things go wrong and what to expect from different people. It's like you only say things when they matter, otherwise you're so quiet sometimes it's hard to remember you're there. I mean, sometimes being quiet is something you _have_ to do, you can be invisible and all, but...,"

Tygra smiled warmly, "It sounds to me like I never make mistakes."

"No," Lion-O sighed loudly, "_Everyone_ makes mistakes, Snarf tells me that _all the time_."

"That we do," Tygra grinned, "Mistakes that get us captured in the depths of Castle Plun-darr, tied to a machine set to kill at first light."

Lion-O tapped his claw idly on the stone railing, "So? That was the mutants' fault," he mumbled.

"Hardly," Tygra said, his tone serious, "Had I been more careful I would not have been caught in such a predicament. Tell me then, Lion-O, if I am so great, why am _I_ not Lord of the Thundercats?"

Lion-O was quiet. There were multiple reasons but none of them sounded good enough, royal bloodlines could always be changed, the Sword of Omens could always favor a different Lord, Jaga's spirit could appear to anyone it wanted, really. Tygra was already of nobility anyways, could he not take up the Sword so easily?

"Why _aren't_ you Lord of the Thundercats?" Lion-O asked, half-curious and half-lamenting.

"I am not a leader, Lion-O. I am an architect, a scientist, a historian, a councilor, but not a leader. I do not wish to lead. However great I am in your eye, much of that is pure fantasy, I am no god. I have been your age before, I have made the same mistakes—perhaps some of them even bigger than yours—and I am just as mortal as you are. I get hurt in the same ways, I feel with my heart and think with my mind. The way I have chosen and learned to cope and understand my world has built me into the Tygra you know and idolize. I lead, but I am not a leader—it is not who I learned to be."

"How do you choose to be a leader, then?" Lion-O asked, feeling a little overwhelmed.

"You do not choose, you simply be."

Lion-O frowned, his voice quiet, "Am I a leader, Tygra?"

Tygra took one last bite of the apple. The sky had transitioned from a blazing fire to an ashy purple, followed by a soft belt of calming greens and blues.

"That is a question only you can answer every day. Are you who you are?"

Seemingly troubled by the darkening skies, Lion-O gazed upwards, the dim light enhancing the worry on his young face.

"Am I good enough to be who I am?" he asked, quieter than before.

Tygra bounced the apple in the palm of his hand before tossing it to Lion-O. He caught it, staring at it before looking to Tygra in curiosity. Tilting his head in the direction of the sprawling landscape, Tygra wordlessly encouraged Lion-O to throw the apple with all his might. Biting the inside of his lip, Lion-O drew back his arm and threw it with all his might. The small fruit careened until it was an indistinguishable black dot in the distance.

"Good or bad, these are judgments only the world holds on you. All you can do is simply be the best you can be, and better yourself the next day. You are not stagnant, you can change if you so choose to. What determines your greatness are the friends and family that stay with you through your life's journey."

Leaping down from the railing, Tygra stood to his full, lean height. Placing his fist over his chest, he smiled at the young Lord.

"This responsibility is not yours to bear alone, Lion-O. We all have followed the same footsteps on our different paths. I can only say so much to guide you. One day you may find yourself in my place, one day you will become wise, and when that day comes you'll realize just how far you've come. Good night, Lion-O, Lord of the Thundercats! Understand your shortcomings and they become your strengths. When you know that, there is little that can harm you."

Lion-O watched Tygra disappear back into the Cat's Lair. The stars above him twinkled in strange constellations, and he gazed up at them intently, pondering the tiger's words as the night caressed him with gentle breezes until his eyelids felt heavy and he retreated to chamber, letting himself relax into a deep sleep.

–

Much later, Tygra found an oddity amongst the flora to the west of the Cat's Lair. In a small clearing hardly of any importance he found a small sapling, thriving in its peculiar spot. Kneeling down, the Thundercat realized that it bore the leaves of the trees in the apple orchard.

He smiled.


End file.
